About Me

Friday, June 6, 2008

Trier

Unrelated to the title of the post, but worth noting that as I blog this evening the European Championship of soccer/football is underway, with Germany having just defeated Poland (I'll avoid the obvious jokes here) 2-0. Horns are honking, people are yelling, there is huge excitement. On cars and balconies all around are the flags of many countries, supporting the home team (we live in the central part of the city, which is pretty multicultural, or multi-culti as the Germans say).

But on to Trier, the oldest city in Germany. We went mainly to see the Roman ruins, including the Porta Nigra, which is the largest and best-preserved city gate from the Roman Empire. We also saw some of the Roman baths - the most fun part of that were the tunnels under and around the old baths - and a Roman amphitheater. One of the museums has wonderful old mosaics and other relics of Rome, including this stone carving of a wine ship that adorned the tomb of a wine merchant who lived on the Mosel River around AD 220. Trier also has a wonderful old market square, which has been in use since the 10th century.Street performers are pretty common, but this one was particularly good - his costume actually included a working fountain.